Ryan McNeil
Midway through this new genre film, we learn about one of the rules of survival in this world: that one can only really make noise if something else nearby is making more noise. The math on it is simple; you’re less likely to be a target of there is a bigger target nearby. The longer one thinks about it, the scarier it gets. How much of what we do and how we act comes from the security of knowing that the world has bigger fish to fry? How differently might we act – how much quieter might we be – if we knew all eyes and ears were on us.
It’s a an deeply unnerving thought, the further one lets it sink in.
A QUIET PLACE is set in a future where strange creatures have invaded earth. We do not exactly know what they are or what they want, but we know one thing for certain – they are drawn to sound. A heavy footstep, a door closing, even a whisper could court death.
In the face of this danger, The Abbot Family are still surviving. Parents Evelyn and Lee (Emily Blunt and John Krasinski) are doing every last thing they can to keep their children out of harm’s way. It doesn’t always work out, as a close encounter brings tragedy to their family unit. However, the Abbots press forward, doing all they can to keep their children safe.
This involves tending to the nerves of their son, Marcus (Noah Jupe) – who is haunted by the earlier tragedy, and doesn’t completely seem to want to face the responsibilities of the family’s continued survival. This also involves tending to the angst of their daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds) – who is deaf, headstrong, and feels like her parents carry a quiet grudge for her involvement in the earlier tragedy.
Days pass and Lee quietly seeks answers. He reaches out for anyone who may still be able to help, and he tries to build better and better hearing aids for Regan. Meanwhile, Evelyn too keeps taking strides to keep the family protected, and does so with the next member of their family growing in her belly.
The Abbots have done well and lasted a long time in the face of crisis, but how much longer can they keep their little corner of the town as a quiet place, free from harm?
The belief generally is that rural areas are by nature “a quiet place”. There are no car horns honking, no sirens. There are no jack hammers and heavy machinery constantly building new structures, no hum of thousands of people trying to get here and there. This makes for a stone cold dose of reality when we enter into this movie and realize that the “peace and quiet” of the country still isn’t quiet enough to survive in this world.
It’s a quick and elegant way to show just how high the stakes are in this well-crafted thriller.
Early in A QUIET PLACE, we watch The Abbott Family silently say grace before a meal. No “father’s are addressed; no “amens” are offered. The act is simply parents and children holding hands with heads bowed, each giving quiet thanks to the almighty. The moment is deeply intimate, and a display of pure thanksgiving. It needs to be – after all, what we are witnessing isn’t just four people grateful for the food they are about to eat, but for their very survival. The world around them has been cut to ribbons – their own family had a strip torn off. Yet here they sit, still with something – someone – worth giving thanks for.
The peace of this moment stands in contrast to the terror that fuels this movie. It demonstrates how people like The Abbots endure as long as they do, and just how attuned they are to their good fortune. They may have to mind their every step, may have to express their joys and sorrows with their hands instead of their lips; but they still get to. While so many around them have lost and keep losing so much, a family unit of four remains.
They should be giving thanks to each-other, but old habits die hard.
One could well get caught-up in the stakes of A QUIET PLACE. One could be terrified by a life where one has to consider every single step on a hardwood floor, or fear the shaking of a pill bottle. A sneeze could mean certain doom; the dropping of a spoon could be catastrophic. However, what a film like this does well is to allow the reality of the situation set-in.
The reality is that every parent is terrified of harm coming to their children. They would do anything to protect them, to keep them from harm’s way…and some even fool themselves into believing that they always can. The chilling reality is that when harm wants to find a child, it will find them. A parent can question their dedication and steadfastness to the enth degree…but the hard, cold truth is that there is only so many survival skills that can be taught. At a certain point, the safety of their children is out of their hands.
It’s a chilling thought; It’s also a reality of life.
There’s small paradox in A QUIET PLACE demanding silence as the price of survival for its characters. The paradox comes in the way so very many of us now would do darned near anything to fill the silence, finding comfort and company in even the smallest bit of background noise. It could be as subtle as an earbud in our ear, or as powerful as waves hitting the shore outside a window. For many of us, the sound of anything makes us feel a bit more secure and a bit less alone. To give that up means accepting the feelings of isolation – the pure suffocation of silence.
It’s a terrifying notion.